KAELYN WOJTYLKO
STAFF WRITER
Photo by EMMA GROSSBAUER
Parking has been a hot topic on campus, especially since the overnight street parking is now no longer allowed between the hours of 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. Many students have been parking in the streets since the beginning of the semester, which has taken a few of the spots students with passes for the lots usually use.
Students across campus have had their fair share of complaints about the overflow of students parking in their desired lot near their building. Many students do not pay attention to the regulations on Alma’s website in regard to the parking. For instance, if a student finds their lot full, then they can contact Campus Safety and get a temporary permit to park in an overflow lot.
Also, according to the regulations, if you are an owner of a maroon or teal pass, you may park in any of the silver lots if your assigned parking lot is at its maximum capacity. One thing to remember is that overflow parking is only allowed until noon the following day.
“I have not been able to park in my lot near my building since early October,” said Rachel Whipple (’20).
Students have, however, shown how upset they are that they even have to park in overflow lots, especially with the amount they pay to park.
“I pay $300 to park in the teal lots around campus, and there are only three lots that are teal on campus,” said Carrielynn LaFranchi (’22). “There are multiple other people that do the exact same, yet there are people who do not own a pass or park in random lots still and get away with it, which makes it hard for people who actually own the pass for the lots to find a parking spot.”
Students had the option to choose between several lots at the beginning of the year. Those lots are the Teal (north side by Gelston, Newberry, Mitchell and Bruske), Maroon (south side of campus near the fraternity and sorority houses, along with Brazell/Nisbet, Carey/Bonbright, Wright Hall and then on North side of campus by Wright Ave), Silver (across from Starbuck’s and by the softball field), Gold (behind Starbucks) and Magenta (First Presbyterian Church).
“For the amount of money I both pay to go here and pay for a parking pass, there should be open spots located in the lots close to where I live,” said Sophia Payne (’22). Students have been struggling to find parking spots due to the mass amount of students having a car on campus and either parking in the wrong spot, not owning a parking pass or not having the current parking pass for that specific lot.
“My friend and I always park in the same lot by our sorority house, and that lot has been consistently full, so we have not been able to park in our lot and have had to park relatively far away from where we live,” said Lauren Sandtveit (’21). “The other night, we couldn’t find a spot and called security to tell them, and they said to come get a pass for an overflow lot and gave us a pass for the Heritage lot, which is a distance away from our housing, and the pass was just for the day. The way parking is grouped together this year does not seem like it has a reason; the way the old parking lots were set up made more sense.”
With the parking lots being consistently overflowing, students have been creating their own parking spots in their assigned lots and not in assigned spots which is going against regulations. Campus Security is ticketing people who are violating these regulations. If you have any questions about the regulations, you can look them up on Alma’s website under Parking on Campus.
If you so happen to receive a ticket, you should get a charge on your account, and you have seven days to appeal the ticket before having to pay the amount specified at the Financial Services Office in the basement of Hamilton.
This is the first year the new lots have been in placement compared to the old system, so kinks are still being worked out, and everyone is still trying to get used to the new lot setup. While many students do not care for the new set up, some do because it gives them more options where they can park. If you have any questions regarding parking do not hesitate to look online to see if your question is answered there, or contact Campus Safety.
